Kayode Olanrewaju 
As parents and other stakeholders groan under the harrowing effects of high cost of textbooks, the National President of National Association of Proprietors of Private School (NAPPS) Nigeria, Chief Yemi Otubela, has attributed the situation to high inflation rate in the country.
According to him, this has negatively triggered the high cost of printing materials, transportation, and logistics sharply, resulting today in the cost of books which are far more expensive than they used to be.
In a statement, titled: “The Real Story Behind Textbook Costs in Private Schools: The Way Forward,” he said: “The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) Nigeria has observed the growing concerns of parents about the rising cost of textbooks, especially in private schools.”
However, he noted that the concerns were genuine, but it is important to understand the issues at play so that solutions could be practical, fair, and beneficial to both parents and the education system at large.
Like every other commodity in our markets that is affected by inflation, Otubela said it is instructive to note that a major difference between private and public schools lies in how these books reach students. “In many public schools, state governments purchase books in bulk, rebrand them, and distribute them to learners at no cost. In private schools, however, there are no such government interventions,” he added.
While explaining that publishers and authors often insist on selling through schools directly to prevent their books from being hijacked by piracy, NAPPS President noted that as observed, pirated books are widely sold in open markets at cheaper rates with these copies being of poor quality and denying authors and publishers their rightful earnings.
“Publishers mostly fund their work with bank loans, heavily indebted and for this reason, many publishers now avoid open markets altogether and prefer schools as secure distribution points. “Unfortunately, some of the middle men, often referred to as agents or marketers, are found inflating the cost of the books more than the publisher selling prices without the knowledge of the author or publisher, and this must stop,” he said.
Otubela traced the other factor to the number of books required, explaining that government schools often limit their lists to a few core subjects, while in contrast, private schools adopt a wider range of textbooks to ensure quality education and broader exposure for children.
NAPPS, which commended government’s policies on reusable textbooks, as recently being witnessed in some states, insisted that the limits of this approach must also be acknowledged, saying for instance, books such as Mathematics, English Language, Science textbooks at higher levels could be reused, but nursery and lower primary pupils often work directly in their books by colouring, shading, or solving problems inside the pages. “Such workbooks cannot be reused by siblings.
Similarly, subjects such as Technical Drawing, Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, among others, require direct entries by students, making reuse impractical.
On the way forward, as an association, NAPPS said it is for government to go beyond the reusable textbook idea and revive policies of the past, and the government should consider bulk purchasing from publishers and redistributing to both state and private school learners, either free of charge or at heavily subsidised rates.
